Become the conductor of a group of animated human sound machines and express your musicality through this free, fun, and easy to use interactive program. Sponsored by a graphic design and mixed media studio, Incredibox lets you record your music composition to share with friends.

When you get to the site, select from versions:

The original – 2009

Little miss – 2012

Sunrise – 2013

The love – 2014

After making a selection, a short introduction demonstrates how to use the program. Once the intro is over, the program will be ready to begin. You’ll see animated male characters. Drag and drop different effects, beats, melodies, and voices (from icons located below the animation screen). As you drop them onto the character, it will dress the character in a new outfit and demonstrate the effect. Continue until you create a musical piece that appeals to you.

Use the small icons above the music screen to record your music, shuffle the program (automate it), remove the sounds (start over), and change the settings. It takes a little experimentation to get proficient at creating compositions, but the fun is in exploring and testing the possibilities.

Note: There is a big “Play Now” button located at the bottom of the screen that opens a page where you can download a game program. It was difficult to tell if it was an advertisement – but it’s not part of the Incredibox program. Our advice is to avoid it. Also, there is a paid version of Incredibox available in the Apple App Store.

This website, sponsored by the Dallas Wind Symphony, features all of the works of John Philip Sousa – most famous for his 136 marches, particularly, “Stars and Stripes Forever,” the official march of the United States of America. If you’re not certain you know the music, a friendly ClickScholar writes in to remind us that, “It’s that famous song. You know, ‘Be kind to your web-footed friends, for a duck may be somebody’s mo-o-other…'”

Sousa was a man of many talents. Use the navigation bar to learn about the man and music, listen to his marches and operettas, read descendent-approved biographical information and primary source accounts of Sousa’s life and work, and much more.

Under “Works” in the menu, look for the “Complete Works of Sousa” and click on it to see a comprehensive listing of Sousa’s work along with sound clips from many of his original recordings with his actual band.

As a Clickscholar commented, “The music alone is really worth the visit.”

This website is a companion to the Sphinx Organization that “envisions a world in which classical music reflects cultural diversity and plays a role in the everyday lives of youth.” Sphinx Kids bring classical music into underserved schools nationwide. The website, partially sponsored by AT&T and the New York Philharmonic, provides free interactive games that introduce kids to the world of classical music, instruments of the orchestra, and the diversity of many composers of classical music.

When you get to the website you’ll see a menu that includes:

Minority Composer’s Forum – Learn about the lives and musical compositions of renown minority composers such as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Undine Smith Moore, Heitor Villa-Lobos and more. Listen to samples of their compositions.

Minorities On Stage – Watch videos of performances by minority musicians, and be sure to click on “See What’s Going On Backstage” to watch video-interviews with the musician-laureates. Their stories are inspirational.

Orchestration Station – Get familiar with the instruments of the orchestra. Pick one and hear it played.

Rhythm Band – Use a virtual pencil to place notes on a scale, then pick one or several instruments to hear how it sounds.

Music Match: Composers – Match the classical composers to their musical compositions.

Music Match: Instruments – Play a match game with instruments of the orchestra.

Instrument Storage Room – Take an animated tour of the storage room and learn about each instrument and hear it played.

String Instrument Gallery – Learn about each part of the violin, viola, cello, and bass and what it does.

This website from Red Balloon Technology Ltd. in St. Albans, England, is a fabulous resource for free sheet music for all kinds of instruments. 90% of this website is free to use with subscriptions to additional features available for $20 a year. The free portions of this website are ad-supported, but they are minimal and do not interfere with use of the site.

When arriving at the link, visitors will see sections broken down into smaller categories with image links. Sections include:

When choosing from an instrument category, the section is further broken down into categories such as music genre, skill levels, and/or occasion. There are also resource links for lessons, forums, tuners, and more.

Music lessons and resources include basic lessons for drum, guitar, piano, saxophone, violin, music theory and more. Search by level or lesson. Find guitar, ukulele, piano, flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, recorder, and trumpet, and interactive finger and chord charts in the Chord Charts, Fingering Charts & Scales section. There is also a Composer and Artist biographies collection to explore to expand your knowledge of music greats.

When selecting from a music category, you are presented with a chart of available music within the genre. You can easily make selections by searching for difficulty level, artist, or title from the information in the chart. Click on the song title and another list shows all the instrument versions that are available. Select the instrument and the sheet music page will open.

When the sheet music pages open, you can not only view the music but also print out the sheet music. There is also access to use an online metronome and review other information about the piece.

Music lovers will want to bookmark this website and check the “Latest” category to see all the new additions to this continually building website.

(Please note that in the free portions only one page at a time can be printed when selecting the printer icon. Also subscribers only have access to the “Play”, “Play Along – Piano Accompaniment”, “Play Along Band Accompaniment”, and “Play Along – Slow Piano Accompaniment” features.)

Don’t let the “preschool” title in this website stop you from taking a look at this activity.

This website page offers instructions on how to make 9 different musical instruments including:

Tambourine

Drum

Chimes

Horn

Cymbals

Xylophone

Comb Buzzer

Guitar

Handbells

All instruments are made with common items that you probably have around the house. While preschoolers will enjoy the activities and the joyful noise they can make, older children may also enjoy making these useful toys. Perhaps you can enlist their help in making some for their younger siblings – but don’t be surprised if everyone joins the family band!

The National Museum of Education’s website encourages young inventors by providing all kinds of information on inventors, inventions, and how to invent. It encourages students to invent with interactive games to challenge thinking and improve science skills. It also has a database of online science experiments, and terrific invention contests and competitions. They also maintain a “Hall of Fame” featuring student inventors!

When you get to the site you’ll see an introduction. Scroll down to the main menu featuring five items:

Student Inventors – Read comics featuring the biographies of student inventors, explore the student inventors and their inventions in the “Gallery for America’s Young Inventors”, and find out how you can submit an invention and be inducted to the hall of fame.

Invention Competitions – Students can participate in competitions, awards, scholarships, and more. Check out the BubbleWrap competition, the Rubber Band Contest, Student Ideas for a Better America, and more.

Science Activities – Check out this fantastic database of online activities that help kids learn how to design and build inventions, problem-solve, think scientifically, and use physics to develop their inventions. All of these lessons and experiments link to websites with terrific content for students of all ages and abilities. Who needs textbooks? This is a science curriculum all by itself.

Inventors and Inventions – Explore this archive of famous and not-so-famous inventors from around the world (including African-American and women inventors). Check out the U.S. Patent Office for kids. Get a short list of museums featuring weird and wonderful inventions.